Meet the LI couple who paid $4,000 each to ride the ‘Eclipse Express’
These eclipse adventurers don’t mind being taken for a ride.
Astronomy enthusiasts Don and Lisa Combs gladly forked over $4,000 apiece for a precious seat on one of two vintage trains that will transport the Long Island couple from Penn Station to Niagara Falls, where Monday’s full solar spectacular can be viewed.
New York City will experience a partial 90% event.
“My husband is a train fanatic and I indulge his passion and obsession regarding that. And we planned to go to the eclipse anyway,” Lisa Combs, 63, told The Post.
The couple — he’s an electrician and she’s a graphic designer — originally planned on driving upstate and staying at an Embassy Suites hotel “on the Canadian side.”
“But this seemed like a much nicer way to do it,” Lisa Combs said. “It satisfies two needs at the same time. Wonderful train travel and a fabulous [vintage train] car and getting to the eclipse easily.”
The Pullman cars Blue Ridge Club and Berlin will depart Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station just after 10 a.m. Sunday on the rear of an Amtrak.
They’re scheduled to pull into the Niagara Falls station around 7:45 p.m., in plenty of time for Monday’s rare celestial event.
The eclipse — when the moon passes between the sun and Earth, blocking the view of the sun — will start at 2:04 p.m. and last for about two and a half hours. The full eclipse will occur between 3:20 and 3:23 p.m.
Don Combs, who grew up around model trains, also owns a telescope and scouts out astrological events. “This was such a big deal and it’s a total eclipse in the U.S.,” the 58-year-old said.
The trains accommodate 18 overnight guests in six master suites and three double bedrooms.
Lisa and Don Combs are riding in style in a master suite on the Berlin.
The couple had journeyed twice before on the vintage car, so “within five minutes of getting an email regarding this trip, it was like, Bingo! We’re going. We’re gone,” Lisa Combs laughed.
Travelers stay aboard Sunday and Monday nights and return to NYC on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
An onboard chef will serve gourmet lunch and dinner, and hors d’oeuvres at night.
And there are the luscious landscapes.
“It’s exciting to just open up the window and look outside and see what terrain and towns are passing by. It’s very nostalgic,” Don Combs said.
Now that the scene is set, Lisa and Don Combs — who will celebrate their 34th wedding anniversary next month — just need the Sun Gods to deliver.
“The totality aspect is going to be interesting because I hope to see the corona a little more clearly,” Don Combs said.
“I’m looking forward to CLEAR skies!” added Lisa, who believes she last eyed a total eclipse as a “little kid in the late 60s or early 70s.”